Date: 1596
"In this respect [conscience] may fitly be compared to a notarie, or a register that hath alwaies the penne in his hand, to note and record whatsoeuer is saide or done: who also because he keepes the rolles and records of the court, can tell what hath bin said and done many hundred yeares past."
preview | full record— Perkins, William (1558-1602)
Date: 1642
"The heart of man is the place the Devils dwell in: I feel sometimes a Hell within my self; Lucifer keeps his Court in my breast, Legion is revived in me."
preview | full record— Browne, Sir Thomas (1605-1682)
Date: 1667
"Conscience is Christs Vicar in mans heart, / It keeps Court there, and acts the Judges part"
preview | full record— Billingsley, Nicholas (bap. 1633, d. 1709)
Date: 1675
"Those things are mean, are forc'd to court the Eyes, The Porters of the Soul, to give 'em entrance."
preview | full record— Fane, Sir Francis (d. 1691)
Date: 1687, 1691
"And though it may seem difficult to be a Saint, in passing ones days in a Prophane Place, yet think not my Piety grows luke-warm, or my Friendship diminished; seeing I have made a Mosque of my Heart, where Friends are ever present."
preview | full record— Marana, Giovanni Paolo (1642-1693); Anonymous [William Bradshaw (fl. 1700) or Robert Midgley (1655?-1723)?]
Date: 1693
"No suppliant crowds before the judge appeared; / No court erected yet, nor cause was heard; / But all was safe, for conscience was their guard."
preview | full record— Dryden, John (1631-1700)
Date: 1696
"Poor thredbare Vertue ne'er admir'd in Court. / But seeks its Refuge in an honest Mind, / There it securely dwells, / Like Anchorets in Cells / Where no Ambition nor wild Lust resorts."
preview | full record— Tutchin, John (1661-1707)
Date: w. 1677, 1702
"Vain wandring Thoughts, that crowd within my Breast / Do oft obstruct my Soul from Solid Rest; / like to vagrant Clouds, obscure the Mind / Which should to serious watching be inclin'd."
preview | full record— Mollineux [née Southworth], Mary (1651-1695)
Date: 1703, 1718
Light may fly back to Heaven and leave one's breast bereft of its "Celestial Guest"
preview | full record— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)
Date: 1706
"There are so many ways of fallacy, such arts of giving colours, appearances and resemblances by this court-dresser, the fancy, that he who is not wary to admit nothing but truth itself, very careful not to make his mind subservient to any thing else, cannot but be caught."
preview | full record— Locke, John (1632-1704)